Batman Begins

Batman Begins is a 2005 American superhero film, based on the comic book character created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, in which Bruce Wayne loses his philanthropic parents to a senseless crime, and years later becomes the Batman to save the crime-ridden Gotham City on the verge of destruction by an ancient order.

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They told me there was nothing out there, nothing to fear. But the night my parents were murdered I caught a glimpse of something. I've looked for it ever since. I went around the world, searched in all the shadows. And there is something out there in the darkness, something terrifying, something that will not stop until it gets revenge... Me.

Man: Are you so desperate to fight criminals that you lock yourself in to take them on one at a time?

Bruce: Actually, there were seven of them.

Man: I counted six, Mr. Wayne.

Bruce: How do you know my name?

Man: The world is too small a place for someone like Bruce Wayne to disappear no matter how low he chooses to sink.

Bruce: Who are you?

Man: My name is Henri Ducard, but I speak for Ra’s Al Ghul, a man greatly feared by the criminal underworld. A man who can offer you a path.

Bruce: What makes you think I need a path?

Ducard: Someone like you is only here by choice. You have been exploring the criminal fraternity, but whatever your original intentions, you have become truly lost.

Bruce: And what path can Ra’s Al Ghul offer?

Ducard: The path of a man who shares his hatred of evil and wished to serve true justice. The path of the League of Shadows.

Bruce: You’re vigilantes.

Ducard: No, no, no. A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed or locked up. But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can’t stop you, then you become something else entirely.

Bruce: Which is?

Ducard: A legend, Mr. Wayne. Tomorrow, you will be released. If you are bored of brawling with thieves and want to achieve something, there is a rare blue flower that grows on the eastern slopes. Pick one of these flowers. If you can carry it to the top of the mountain, you may find what you were looking for in the first place.

Bruce: And what was I looking for?

Ducard: Only you can know that.

Ducard: You're stronger than your father.

Bruce Wayne: You didn't know my father.

Ducard: But I know the rage that drives you. That impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved ones is just poison in your veins. And one day you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed, so you'd be spared your pain. I wasn't always here in the mountains. Once I had a wife, my great love. She was taken from me. Like you, I was forced to learn that there are those without decency that must be fought without hesitation, without pity. Your anger gives you great power, but if you let it, it will destroy you, as it almost did me.

Bruce: What stopped it?

Ducard: Vengeance.

Bruce: That's no help to me.

Ducard: Why, Bruce? Why did you not avenge your parents?

Batman: [holds Gordon up with a stapler] Don't turn around. You're a good cop, one of the few.

Batman: [reveals gun which is just a stapler] Watch for my sign. [retracts stapler, backs off]

Gordon: You're just one man?

Batman: Now we're two.

Gordon: We?

[Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox visit a special garage at Wayne Enterprises]

Bruce Wayne: [look at a very large and odd vehicle] What's that?

Lucius Fox: The Tumbler? Oh, you wouldn't be interested in that. [cuts to Bruce driving it on a test track, with Fox in the passenger's seat describing how it works] She was built as a bridging vehicle. During combat, two of these would jump over a river, towing cables. Over here on the throttle, flip that open and throttle up. This will boost you into a rampless jump. [Bruce goes to flip the throttle. The Tumbler accelerates] Not now! Not... not now, Sir!

Tumbler AI: Afterburner disengaged.

Fox: We never could get the damn bridge to work, but this baby works just fine. [Bruce swerves the Tumbler to a stop] So, what do you think?

Wayne: Does it come in black?

[Rachel Dawes visits a hotel and sees Bruce going out soaking wet with two European models in underwear and bathrobes walking out

Rachel Dawes: Bruce?

Bruce Wayne: [tries to recognize] Rachel?

Dawes: I had heard you were back. What are you doing?

Wayne: Ugh, just swimming. Wow, it is good to see you.

Dawes: You were gone a long time.

Wayne: I know. How are things.

Dawes: Same. Job's getting worse.

Wayne: [smiles] Can't change the world on your own.

Dawes: [smiles] What choice do I have. When you're too busy 'swimming.'

Wayne: Rachel, all of, all this, it's not me. Inside, I am more.

Model #1: [calls out] Come on Bruce, come on!

Model #2: We have some more hotels for you to buy.

Dawes: [smiles sympathetically] Bruce. Deep down you may still be that same great kid you used to be. But it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you. [Walks away]

Dr. Jonathan Crane: Miss Dawes, this is most irregular. I have nothing further to add to the report I filed with the judge.

Rachel Dawes: I have questions about your report.

Crane: Such as?

Dawes: Isn't it convenient for a 52-year-old man who has no history of mental illness to suddenly have a complete psychotic breakdown, just when he's about to be indicted?

Crane: Well, as you can see for yourself, there is nothing "convenient" about his symptoms. [they look at Falcone, still muttering "Scarecrow"]

Dawes: What's "scarecrow"?

Crane: Patients suffering delusional episodes often focus their paranoia on an external tormentor. Usually one conforming to Jungian archetypes. In this case, a scarecrow... Outside, he was a giant. In here, only the mind can grant you power.

Dawes: You enjoy the reversal?

Crane: I respect the mind's power over the body. It's why I do what I do.

Dawes: I do what I do to keep thugs like Falcone behind bars, not in therapy.

Batman: Taste of your own medicine, doctor? [Gasses Crane with the fear toxin] What have you been doing here? What was your plan? Crane! Who are you working for?

Crane: Ra's! Ra's al Ghul!

Batman: Ra's al Ghul is dead! Who are you working for? Crane!

Crane: [Hallucinates Batman as a grotesque bat creature] Dr. Crane isn't here right now, but if you'd like to make an appointment...

Ducard: Amusing, but pointless. None of these people have long to live. Your antics at the asylum have forced my hand.

Bruce Wayne: So Crane was working for you.

Ducard: His toxin is derived from the organic compound found in our blue flowers. He was able to weaponize it.

Wayne: He's not a member of the League of Shadows?

Ducard: Of course not. He thought our plan was to hold the city to ransom.

Wayne: But really, you are going to release Crane's poison on the entire city.

Ducard: Then watch Gotham tear itself apart through fear.

Wayne: You're going to destroy millions of lives.

Ducard: Only a cynical man would call what these people have "lives," Wayne. Crime. Despair. This was not how man was supposed to live. The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. We sacked Rome, loaded trade ships with plague rats. Burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance.

Wayne: Gotham isn't beyond saving. Give me more time. There are good people here.

Ducard: You are defending a city so corrupt, we have infiltrated every level of its infrastructure. When I found you in that jail, you were lost. But I believed in you. I took away your fear, and showed you a path. You were my greatest student. It should be you standing by my side, saving the world.

Wayne: I'll be standing where I belong: between you, and the people of Gotham.

Ducard: No one can save Gotham. [nods to henchmen, who begin vandalizing the house and set it on fire] When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural. Tomorrow, the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time.

Wayne: You've attacked Gotham before?

Ducard: Of course. Over time, our weapons have grown more sophisticated. With Gotham, we tried a new one - economics. But, we underestimated certain of Gotham's citizens. Such as your parents. Gunned down by one of the very people they were trying to help. Create enough hunger and everyone becomes a criminal. Their deaths galvanized the city unto saving itself and Gotham has limped on ever since. We are back to finish the job. And this time, no misguided idealists will stand in the way. Like your father, you lack the courage to do all that is necessary. If someone stands in the way of true justice, you simply walk up behind them, and stab them in the heart.

Bruce Wayne: I wanted to save Gotham. I've failed.

Alfred: Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.

Bruce: You still haven't given up on me?

Alfred: Never.

Ducard: [pinning Batman down] Don't be afraid, Bruce. You are just an ordinary man in a cape! That's why you couldn't fight injustice and that's why you can't stop this train!

Batman: Who said anything about stopping it?! [as Ducard sees the train about to crash, Batman overpowers him] You never learned to mind your surroundings!

Ducard: Have you finally learned to do what is necessary?

Batman: I won't kill you...but I don't have to save you. [Batman escapes, leaving Ducard to his fate]

Alfred Pennyworth: [driving Bruce Wayne] Batman may have made the front page, but Bruce Wayne got pushed to page eight.

Bruce Wayne: [Bruce reads headline, answers phone] Bruce Wayne.

Earle: What makes you think you can decide who's running Wayne Enterprises?

Wayne: Well, the fact that I'm the owner.

Earle: What are you talking about? The company went public a week ago.

Bruce Wayne: And I bought most of the shares - through various charitable foundations, and trusts, and so forth. Look, it's all a bit technical, but the important thing is that my company's future is secure. [speaks slightly louder] Right, Mr. Fox?

Fox: Right you are, Mister Wayne. [turns to Earle, takes off glasses] Didn't you get the memo?

Gordon: And you're wearing a mask ... and jumping off rooftops. Now, take this new guy. Armed robbery, double homicide. Got a taste for the theatrical. Like you. Leaves a calling card. [hands Batman a clear plastic evidence bag containing a playing card; Batman turns it over to reveal that it is a Joker card]

Batman: I'll look into it. [walks to edge of roof]

Gordon: I never said thank you.

Batman: [looks at Gordon] And you'll never have to. [spreads cape, leaps off roof]